A taste of everything

Fisketorvet’s new food universe and meeting place will contribute to life by the water with both street food, bars and traditional restaurants that face the mall’s popular harbour bath. For that reason, the project was named KAJEN – which means the quay. The major transformation of the centre’s restaurant area will result in dining experiences in four floors spread over approx. 6,500 m². There will literally be a taste of everything, as visitors can look forward to 39 new eateries and a much more varied selection than before. At the top, there is a publicly accessible roof terrace with a view of the harbour and the Copenhagen skyline.

Interaction with the local area
This project is a great example of how shopping centres change character in these years, says Lars Beier, who works with development projects for Fisketorvet :

Traditionally, many shopping centres were built inside out in the sense that all user-oriented elements are located in the middle, while technology and administration are located along the facade, generally with a closed look. But now, there is a tendency for centres to become transparent instead, so that they can interact better with their surroundings and live up to today’s demands for daylight.

There is no doubt that the ambient surroundings have become more vibrant since Fisketorvet opened in 2000. The harbour bath was established in 2003, and today, the area is not only frequented by the many visitors who enjoy the waterfront during the summer months. It has also become a busy traffic artery for pedestrians and bike riders due to the bicycle bridge Cykelslangen, the bridge Bryggebroen and other urban development. It therefore makes even more sense that much of what the mall has to offer will be accessible from the outside on the ground floor.

Retail in change
The new addition is part of a large vision with a new district plan that Artelia helped prepare. The plan opens for possibilities for expanding the centre with other types of commercial buildings and housing. As Lars points out, this shows yet another new tendency with much more emphasis on experiences, where the centres to a greater extent are combined with buildings for other purposes :

The plans for the other projects are not 100% fixed, but as part of the idea development, Lars and our cost management specialists have helped create business cases for different scenarios. In relation to the overall planning of Fisketorvet’s development and with that the realisation of the possibilities in the district plan, there is a large context to consider. Lars therefore works closely together with Artelia’s traffic planners and many other specialists.

The area is in every way a hub, and not just in terms of traffic. If we dig a little deeper, we will reach one of HOFOR’s mains in the ground and a large metro construction that requires a lot of coordination, Lars explains and is supported by Helle Korndal, who represents the owner :

39 new leases
The complexity was also a characteristic of the new food universe, where Artelia was responsible for all engineering services, design management, construction management as well as health and safety coordination (P). The process required careful planning and consideration for the rest of the operation.

Mall constructions are also characterised by the need for flexibility to easily adapt to different needs. The tenants each have their own unique wishes, which we have also helped meet as consultants to the tenants. Edda Maria Vignisdottir was responsible for that task, and she looks back on a creative process where a digital taste of the future layout formed the basis for dialogue. Each leased retail space was designed in 3D by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfields own design studio, Concept Studio, who at the same time helped many of the tenants create or refine the aesthetic expression for the individual eatery. Artelia’s more technical models, on the other hand, had a different function, says Edda :

3D versus 2D
For almost five years, Edda has been a regular at Fisketorvet, where she helps with several projects in relation to the ongoing operation and design of leased retail space for new purposes. A good example is Denmark’s largest Sport 24 store, which moved into the centre in 2023. Therefore, she also knows quite a bit about the contrast between digital models of new buildings and the existing centre’s old 2D drawings, which present challenges that are in no way unique to Fisketorvet :

As-built material from the analogue age is rarely accurate enough. It is a technical problem when renovating, but also when the municipality has to have all the docu­mentation that is now mandatory in order to get an occupancy permit. The difference becomes even clearer when compared to a fully model­led new building, where data extraction is easy, says Edda.

Asset management
For the same reason, Fisketorvet works continuously to digitalise the operational tasks. For this, they get help from our department for asset and facilities management, who are helping to implement DKV plans (operation, control and maintenance plans) for the fire technical systems in the centre’s facilities management system (Dalux FM). In connection with the new expansion, they were responsible for facilitation and quality control of the digital delivery to ensure a valid and adequate basis for operation and maintenance, which will be of value to the future operation, says Aziz Hüdai Idil :

The information could be product data, drawings, service intervals and the reports that are added on an ongoing basis. As Aziz points out, the model is not only a gain in relation to asset management at an operational level. The easy access to data can also be used on a tactical and strategic level.

A retail centre is a perfect example of a property where it makes very good sense to have the exact distribution of all areas. Here, you can very easily see what exactly belongs to the individual leased retail space, and which areas are shared. Since you can map all surfaces of a certain type, it can also be used for tendering of services like cleaning or window cleaning, says Aziz and is supported by Edda, who highlights a final perspective :

Fisketorvet is certified with BREEAM, and this requires a lot of documentation. Since all new additions must comply with relevant requirements, we have gone through the same process with the food universe. In this case, we saw that the work was a lot easier when everything is digital.